On-line subscription system and method

ABSTRACT

A system and a method of providing on-line subscription services from a subscription server to a user of a mobile terminal through the Internet. The subscription server receives from the mobile terminal user-specific information relating to the user&#39;s mobile terminal capabilities, the user&#39;s preferences of products, and the user&#39;s financial information. The subscription server sends to the mobile terminal at least locally or remotely retrieved information related to a product based on the user-specific information. The subscription server receives from the mobile terminal a request indicating whether the user wishes to either cancel or purchase the product. The subscription server cancels the product when the user indicates so, and downloads the product to the mobile terminal when the user desires to purchase the product.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/476,674 filed Dec. 30, 1999.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the provision of services over awide-area network and, more particularly, to a system and a method ofproviding audio and/or video data to a subscriber using a wide-areanetwork such as the Internet.

2. Description of the Related Art

In order to receive the newest and latest entertainment or informationalproducts such as books, music compact disks (CD's), or movie tapes on aregular basis, consumers are often required to join various clubs suchas a book club, a CD club, and/or a movie club. These clubs sendperiodically, typically on a monthly basis, a preselected number ofbooks, CDs, or movies to their members. Delivery of these products bymail or similar services is usually relatively slow so the members donot necessarily receive the most current products. Also, when customerschoose not to buy these products, the overall costs of providing theservice increase, which inevitably raise the price of these products.

With the advent of the Internet, there is now available on the WorldWide Web a multitude of entertainment/informational resources readilyaccessible by the consumers. To retrieve such products, the consumersemploy browsers installed on their desktop computers to search andidentify the appropriate Web sites containing the desired products.

Now, users of mobile equipment such as wireless phones and palm-sizedpersonal computers also demand, as do users of desktop computers, thesesame products. However, searching and browsing such information usingmobile equipment may not be practical, as such mobile equipment haslimited processing capability, memory, and battery power. In addition,such mobile equipment has small displays for viewing and manipulatinginformation.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,941 discloses a portable digital device for storingaudio information on a hard drive, in a flash EPROM, or other solidstate non-volatile memory. The device may be connected to an ISDNtelephone, a digital satellite broadcast device, a two-way interactivecable device, or an Internet Service Provider. However, there is nodisclosure of a system for distributing information to subscribersautomatically and periodically or a system for distributing text andaudio-video data customized for a particular user on a subscriptionbasis over a wireless communication network.

Accordingly, there is a need for a system and method for providingconsumers entertainment and informational products, tailored to their-preferences and interests, on a regular basis through a wide-areanetwork and a wireless communication network.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a system and a methodfor distributing audio-video data from a database to a subscriberautomatically and periodically using a wide-area network and a wirelesscommunication network.

According to an aspect of the invention, the system includes a mobileterminal and a server that can access data representing audio-videoinformation and/or text desired by a subscriber. The server can alsoaccess data relating to the capabilities of the mobile terminal, andpreferences and financial information of a subscriber so that thedesired data or product may be downloaded to the mobile terminalautomatically and periodically. The server charges the subscriber anagreed sum for the downloaded product.

According to another aspect of the invention, the subscription serverperiodically sends to the mobile terminal information concerningproducts available for downloading. The subscriber may reply by sendinga response through the mobile terminal indicating whether the subscriberwishes to receive the products. The response may be formatted as a ShortMessage Service (SMS) message or an e-mail to the subscription server.If the subscriber accepts and specifies a product, the server downloadsthe specified product to the mobile terminal. If the subscriber does notaccept any of the products, the subscriber sends a cancellation messageto the subscription server; the subscriber may optionally place a voicecall to the operator of the subscription server.

In one embodiment, a subscription server provides online subscriptionservices to a user of a mobile terminal through the Internet. The mobileterminal transmits to the subscription server user-specific informationrelating to at least one of the user's mobile terminal capabilities, theuser's preferences of products, and information relating to the user.The subscription server receives the user-specific information relatingto the at least one of the user's mobile terminal capabilities, theuser's preferences of products, and information relating to the user.The subscription server sends to the mobile terminal at predeterminedtime intervals, in response to user-specific information relating to atleast one of the user's mobile terminal capabilities and the user'spreferences of products and the information relating to the user,information related to a product when the user is authorized to receivethe product based on the user-specific information received from themobile terminal. The subscription server receives from the mobileterminal a request indicating whether the user wishes to receive or notreceive the product. The subscription server transmits the product indigital form to the mobile terminal when the user indicates a desire toreceive the product.

In another embodiment, the entire product (e.g., book, music, etc.) isdownloaded to customers' mobile terminals, including a special “gatewaylock”. The customer can, for example, read the first page of thedownloaded book, or listen to one-minute of the downloaded music etc.and after that the “gateway lock” prohibits the use of the product andthe user must choose whether to buy the product or not. If the answer is“yes”, the “gateway lock” opens and the rest of the downloaded productcan be accessed by the customer and fees are charges according to theterms of an agreement or club rules already agreed to by the customer.This embodiment has the advantage of lower overall costs. Onepossibility is that the product is sent back to the server so that theserver knows that the subscription is cancelled.

Routing of data packets between a sender (e.g., the subscription server)and a receiver (e.g., a mobile terminal) is described in U.S. Pat. No.6,233,458, which is incorporated herein by reference.

Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparentfrom the following detailed description considered in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that thedrawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as adefinition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should bemade to the appended claims. It should be further understood that thedrawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwiseindicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate thestructures and procedures described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote similarelements:

FIG. 1 illustrates an on-line subscription system using a wide-areanetwork in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 depicts another embodiment of the on-line subscription system ofthe present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a flow chart describing an embodiment of the inventive method.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE CURRENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 illustrates an on-line subscription system 10 in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention. The system 10 includes a mobileor a wireless communication network 12 for communicating with a mobileterminal 14 comprising, for example, a palm-sized personal computer, aPersonal Digital Assistant, and a wireless phone. The wirelesscommunication network 12 is connected to a wide area network such as theInternet 16 through an Internet access 18 such as a gateway server.Advantageously, the system 10 includes a subscription server 20,connected directly to an Intranet 22, and indirectly to Internet 16through an Intranet access 24, for automatically and regularlycommunicating data to a subscriber, i.e., a user who is registered withthe subscription server 20. A user is registered when the user submitsto the subscription server 20 the requisite user-specific information,which will be stored in a subscription database accessible by thesubscription server 20. The user-specific information includes thecapabilities of the user's hardware, the user's financial information,and the user's preferences. Information on the user's hardwarecapabilities (e.g., user agent, terminal type, network type etc.)enables the server to download data in a format compatible with themobile terminal's protocol and the user network's protocol. The user'sfinancial information such as, for example, the user's name, address,bank, credit or debit card account and other requisite billinginformation is included so that fees can be charged against the user'saccount as appropriate. As one example, the user's preferences areincluded so that the subscription server 20 can automatically seek outand retrieve digitally-formatted products preferred by or otherwiseinteresting to the user (e.g., works of favorite writers, composers,singers, artists, music bands, orchestras, etc.) locally or from othervendor servers connected to the Internet for transmission to the user'smobile terminal using, for example, a search engine.

FIG. 2 illustrates another embodiment of the inventive on-linesubscription system 10. The mobile terminal 14 includes aBluetooth-capable transceiver configured to communicate wirelessly usingBluetooth technology (i.e., using low power RF link) with aBluetooth-compliant device 26 such as, for example, an electronic book(“e-book”), an audio player, or a multimedia player for displaying orplaying audio-visual information. The Bluetooth-capable transceiver mayfor example be a digital broadcast transceiver 30 for communication witha broadcast network 27 or a third generation General Packet RadioService (3G or GPRS) terminal 28 for communication with a 3G GPRSnetwork 25. The Bluetooth-capable transceiver is a device that operatesat a radio frequency of about 2.4 GHz and is capable of establishingradio links with other compliant devices within a predetermined distanceof each other (e.g., typically less than about 30 feet). Thus, user ofthe transceiver 26 may move about a facility, but still maintain accessto the user's e-mail, contacts, or appointments through a Local AreaNetwork (LAN). If unable to display or play the downloaded product fromthe subscription server 20, the Bluetooth-capable transceiver may storethe downloaded product and then transfer (e.g., using wireless orwireline devices) the downloaded product to, for example, the electronicbook 26 (or a laptop computer) for presentation, e.g., viewing and/orlistening.

The subscription server 20 may access data or product from a localdatabase or from a vendor server 32 (operated by, for example, a bookpublisher) connected to the Internet. In the case where direct access tothe vendor server 32 is required, the subscription server 20 sends aUniform Resource Locator (URL) message (a conventional method oflocating or retrieving resources from the World Wide Web) addressed tothe vendor server 32 and retrieves the desired data from the vendorserver 32. Optionally, the subscription server 20 sends a URL message toa “shopping market” 33 Web site which then redirects the subscriptionserver 20 to other vendor Web sites (e.g., various book publisher'sservers) to retrieve the product which has been determined to beinteresting to the user by using the user's preferences. It is notnecessary that user preferences determine when and what information issent but the book club (or the subscription server 20) itself can decidewhat and when should be sent depending on the collection of items thebook club is interested in. The user preferences may, for example, be apredetermined time period (e.g., once a month) the product istransmitted to the user. For example, for an electronic book club, thetext of one or more books is transmitted on the first of each month bythe subscription server 20 and downloaded into the mobile terminal 14.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart describing an embodiment of the on-linesubscription method of the present invention. Initially, in step 100,the subscription server 20 determines whether user-specific informationfor a user exists. In step 102, if the user-specific information exists(or if the user is authorized to receive information from thesubscription server 20), the subscription server 20 retrieves (locally,or remotely from a vendor server by, for example, sending a URL request)and transmits to the mobile terminal 14 information relating toavailable products at each predetermined period of time. The productsare selected based on the user's preferences obtained from thepreviously submitted user-specific information. If user-specificinformation does not exist for the user (or the user is not authorizedto receive information from the subscription server 20), that user mustregister with the subscription server 20 and supply the requisiteinformation before he can receive product-related information from thesubscription server 20, as indicated in step 104. In step 106, thesubscription server 20 assesses and sends to the mobile terminal 14 theproduct-related information. In step 108, the user determines whether topurchase a product (e.g., MP3 (MPEG, layer 3) coded music data and/orJPEG coded image data etc.) based on the product-related information. Ifnot, the user sends a cancellation request from the mobile terminal 14to the subscription server 20 in step 110. The subscription server 20then cancels the product in step 112. The cancellation message may besent to a special address specified in the message sent. When the server20 receives the message, it will add a cancellation mark to thesubscriber information. In step 109, it is determined whether theproduct is included in the message. If the product is included in themessage, the method jumps to step 116. If the product is not included inthe message, the subscription server 20 retrieves and transmits (i.e.,downloads) the product to the mobile terminal 14 in step 114 based onthe network capabilities specified by the user. The mobile terminal 14then determines whether the mobile terminal 14 is capable of presentingthe product based on the user-specific information in step 116. If so,the mobile terminal 14 receives and presents the product by, forexample, using an MP3 player to convert the product into sounds whichare played on a speaker in step 118. If not, the mobile terminal 14transfers the product to a Bluetooth-capable player 26 such as, forexample, an electronic book, an audio player, and/or a multimedia playeretc. in step 120. In the case where text and/or JPEG image data aretransferred to the electronic book 26, the user may view one or morepages on the electronic book 26 as the user depresses sequentially asignaling switch thereon to cause transfer of additional data fordisplay thereon. Thereafter, the subscription server 20 charges theuser's credit or debit card account the price of the downloaded product.

In another embodiment, the entire product (e.g., book, music, etc.) isdownloaded to customers' mobile terminals, including a special “gatewaylock”. The customer can, for example, read the first page of thedownloaded book, or listen to one [−] minute of the downloaded musicetc. and after that the “gateway lock” prohibits the use of the productand the user is requested to decide whether to buy the product or not.If the answer is “yes”, the “gateway lock” opens (by, for example, adecoding message or instruction from the subscription server 20) and therest of the downloaded product can then be accessed by the customer andfees are charge[s] d according to the terms of an agreement or clubrules already agreed to by the customer. This embodiment has theadvantage of lower overall costs. It is contemplated that instead ofcanceling the product, the product may be sent back to the server sothat the server knows that the subscription is cancelled. It is alsocontemplated that instead of sending a decoding message back from theserver, the downloaded product includes an access code for unlocking thegateway lock so that the customer can access the entire product.

The steps of this embodiment include the following. The mobile terminal14 receives a free sample (e.g., a portion of a book or a musical piece)and displays or plays the free sample to the customer. After displayingthe free sample (of predetermined length), the customer is asked whetherhe or she wants to continue. If the customer indicates a desire tocontinue, the mobile terminal clears the gateway lock so that thecustomer can continue his or her enjoyment of the product and therequisite fees are displayed to the customer and charged to thecustomer's account.

In another embodiment, the entire product (e.g., book, music, etc.) isdownloaded to customers' mobile terminals, including a special “gatewaylock”. The customer can, for example, read the first page of thedownloaded book, or listen to one [−] minute of the downloaded musicetc. and after that the “gateway lock” prohibits the use of the productand the user is requested to decide whether to buy the product or not.If the answer is “yes”, the “gateway lock” opens (by, for example, adecoding message or instruction from the subscription server 20) and therest of the downloaded product can then be accessed by the customer andfees are charged according to the terms of an agreement or club rulesalready agreed to by the customer. This embodiment has the advantage oflower overall costs. It is contemplated that instead of canceling theproduct, the product may be sent back to the server so that the serverknows that the subscription is cancelled. It is also contemplated thatinstead of sending a decoding message back from the server, thedownloaded product includes an access code for unlocking the gatewaylock so that the customer can access the entire product.

Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamentalnovel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodimentthereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutionsand changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and intheir operation, may be made by those skilled in the art withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expresslyintended that all combinations of those elements and/or method stepswhich perform substantially the same function in substantially the sameway to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention.Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/ormethod steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosedform or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any otherdisclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a generalmatter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limitedonly as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.

1-12. (canceled)
 13. A server for providing an electronic service to auser of a mobile terminal in a cellular network, the server comprising:a user register; memory for storing user-specific information related toat least one capability of the mobile terminal, preferences of the userand other user related information; seeking means for locally seekingout at least one of digitally formatted electronic text, audio and datafrom other vendor servers that the user prefers or is interested toretrieve the at least one of digitally formatted electronic text, audioand data registered by the user as determined by the at least onecapability of the mobile terminal, the preferences of the user and theother user related information; an interface for transmitting to thecellular telephone via the cellular network at predetermined timeintervals and without user action the at least one of digitallyformatted electronic text, audio and data, if the at least one digitallyformatted electronic text, audio and data corresponds to the userspecific information stored at the server.
 2. The server of claim 1,wherein the user-specific information related to the capability of themobile terminal comprises at least one of a user agent, a terminal typeand a network type for enabling the sever to download data in a formatthat is compatible with at least one of a protocol of the mobileterminal and the cellular network.
 3. The server of claim 1, whereinsaid mobile terminal includes a Blue-tooth capable transceiver.
 4. Theserver of claim 3, wherein if the mobile terminal is unable to displayor play the transmitted at least one of digitally formatted electronictext, audio and data, the Blue-tooth capable transceiver stores thentransmits downloaded product to an external device for presentation. 5.The server of claim 4, wherein the external device comprises one of anelectronic book or a laptop computer for at least one of viewing andlistening to the downloaded product.
 6. The server of claim 1, whereinthe server sends a URL message to a shopping market website whichredirects the server to other vendor web sites to retrieve products forpresentation to the user based on the preferences of the user.
 7. Theserver of claim 6, wherein the other vendor web sites comprise variousbook publisher servers.
 8. The server of claim 1, wherein an option todownload the transmitted at least one of digitally formatted electronictext, audio and data is offered to the user if said at least onedigitally formatted electronic text, audio and data corresponds to theuser specific information stored at the server.
 9. The server of claim8, wherein an offer includes at least a portion of at least one ofdigitally formatted electronic text, audio and data.
 10. The server ofclaim 1, wherein the mobile terminal comprises one of a palm-sizedcomputer, a Personal Digital Assistant and a cellular telephone.
 11. Theserver of claim 1, wherein the transmitted at least one of digitallyformatted electronic text comprises at least one of text and JPEG imagedata.
 12. The server of claim 1, wherein the user-specific informationcomprises information relating to how the user is to pay for the atleast one of digitally formatted electronic text, audio and data.